The Friendly Falcons

Weekend 2, Day 1, of Cats and Cops

2012-02-19T03:30:00.001-08:00

We came up to Connecticut to stay with Tara's parents while we used the woods around their house as a site for our next video, First Light Last Light. Day 1 (Saturday) was a bit of a struggle. We were overtired and cranky, so we were second guessing a lot of the shots. The tension was dispelled when we met an unlikely assistant, named Bugsy. We set up our shot for Sunday, which is an all day time-lapse that we are starting before dawn. In the evening it got a bit colder and we went into the woods with our propane lantern to shoot the fire scene next to the brook. We were well into the shoot, when a police officer pulled into the woods and shined a big spotlight on us. Apparently the neighbors were worried about a mysterious light in the woods. Busted! We packed up and called it a night. Hopefully better luck tomorrow!

Some reading

2012-01-18T16:39:00.001-08:00

Costumes

2012-01-09T13:21:00.001-08:00

Started making quilted cloaks for our new project today.

Fire

2011-12-20T05:32:00.005-08:00

Footsteps

2011-12-20T05:32:00.003-08:00

Storyboarding

2011-12-20T05:32:00.001-08:00

We're rolling on our new winter video project. Currently making concept drawings to get the look of it. It takes place in a snowy landscape. Come on sky! Don't hold out on us!

New studio

2011-12-10T11:14:00.001-08:00

Botanical Memory

2011-09-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we were part of the The Brooklyn Arts Council's "Rethinking Memorial" project; ten artists were asked to create interactive, ephemeral memorials for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. In our project, Botanical Memory, we invited participants to design their own combination of herb sachets. Each herb had a symbolic meaning that we felt reflected qualities brought out in people as a result of 9/11. The herbs were mint for strength, calendula for grief, rosemary for remembrance, lavender for love and peace, and thyme for courage. Participants could give their sachets away as gifts or keep them for personal remembrance.

Ready for transport

2011-09-06T06:08:00.001-07:00

Photografin'

2011-09-04T11:50:00.001-07:00

Last step before we pack things up for transport.

Scraps

2011-09-03T15:22:00.001-07:00

Paper flowers growing from a real branch

2011-09-02T19:13:00.003-07:00

Result of the vinegar

2011-09-02T19:13:00.001-07:00

Steel wool soaked in vinegar

2011-09-02T19:12:00.001-07:00

Natural wood treatments, salt water

2011-09-02T19:11:00.003-07:00

Charred plant and hand stamped wood

2011-09-02T19:11:00.001-07:00

Shooting, writing, choreographing, and more shooting

2011-05-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

We're firing on all cylinders now for our "Oh, river" video project. After spending a bit of time shooting in Connecticut, we're nearly finished with filming and are excited to move onto editing. There have been a couple adventures of note:

1. Jeff fell into the river while filming at night. A wet boot is not fun to work in!

2. We had a National Geographic encounter with a group of buzzards that Tara spotted while driving through Bear Mountain on our second visit.

We're posting just a few pictures. We don't want to give away too much. The first is of our current setup for playing a live score to our video. We're in the middle of writing the choreography for the show. Be on the lookout for our newsletter which will include information on our project screening. The second is of Tara shooting cat tail footage.

Bear Mountain!

2011-04-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Pining for Mountains

2011-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Four 10-Trip Metro North Tickets to Riverdale Later...

2011-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Sheesh! Too much time has past since we last posted about our little outing to Bear Mountain. A lot has happened since then, and we're excited to share the news in this super update.

In mid-February, we began our Winter Workspace residency at Wave Hill in the Bronx. We've been loving the morning Metro North rides along the Hudson every time we go up there to our studio. The river, palisades and gardens at Wave Hill have proved to be inspirational for us. We love to watch nature happen, and it's not so easy to do that in Bushwick, Brooklyn. One rainy Monday, we watched a cardinal snacking on a few worms that came out of the ground. Tara also saved a worm that found its way onto the road and helped it to return to the soil.

The project that we are working on in our studio is called "Oh, River". It is a nomadic shelter that relies on a horizontal structure, i.e. a tree branch, an I-beam under a bridge, to be pitched. There is various imagery of symbiosis happening on the quilted portion, and we delved into the craft of instrument making. To date, we made a bird wood block and sleigh bells that resemble a branch. Currently, an avocado shaker is in the works. Our plan is to set the tent up at various sites and take video of a new performance that we'll compile with other footage to exist as more than pure documentation.

Below are some pictures of the "new" studio, casting concrete weights for the tent with railroad spikes found on the Metro North tracks, gluing up the bird wood block, visiting the cactus greenhouse at Wave Hill, collecting a bounty at Wave Hill, and a few images of the tent.

Open studios for the residency are this Saturday, March 26 from 12 - 4 pm. We hope to see you there!

Playing icicles on Bear Mountain

2011-01-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago we headed up to Bear Mountain in New York for a hike and to rummage around the woods for some good sounds. Since there are no native cacti in New York, we thought we should probably discover the percussive potential native to this area, so we took the drumsticks and the keys on our hike. It was chilly but good research.

Photo Shout Out #3

2010-11-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

This one goes out to Anne Schaefer from the roof of the contemporary museum in Nice, France. Thanks for your support of our indiegogo fundraiser. We spent a really nice day and night in Nice, marveling at the Cote d' Azure, looking at some art and eating crepes and baguette. Our performance at Concert au 5 was really special and intimate. One of our favorites.

Super update!

2010-11-23T08:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit since we posted and much has happened since! Our shows in Amsterdam went great. We had a nice evening at Delicatessan. Bas prepared a delicious pasta and screened a short film after our performance. We loved seeing all the cyclists there! We spent our free day at the Rijksmuseum and eating a cone of fries and mayonaise. Below is also a sneak peek of us in Paris eating crepes. Mmmmm!

Photo Shout Out #2

2010-11-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

This is a photo shout out to Margaret Boozer from the coast of the North Sea in The Hague, Netherlands. Thank you for your support of our indiegogo fundraiser! We spent a lovely, misty afternoon walking the shore and searching for shells with our friend Rachel. This was a special and rare moment of rest between a string of performances. We also ate some tasty raw herring and onion sandwiches, a local staple.

Photo Shout Out!

2010-11-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

This is our first photo shout out from Berlin to our dear friend Blithe. Many thanks for your generous contribution! One shot is of Tara making a "B" in front of the infamous radio tower at Alexanderplatz. The second is of us in the town of Marzahn. We encountered a beach wall mural there! Thank you Blithe! P.S. The sky was beautiful that day!

FIT, plus a pastry medley!

2010-11-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

We performed at FIT today in Berlin. It was a great outdoor space. The weather was drizzly, but thankfully it was not windy. Just before we performed, a barrel of fire was lit to keep us and our audience toasty. Below are some pics and one of our morning pastry medley!

Tik Theatre

2010-11-12T03:53:00.000-08:00

Last night's performance at Tik was a lot of fun. The space was a really nice black box theatre; perfect for our performance. As promised, here are some post-performance pics. Last night on the way home we got caught in a steady drizzle that yet again tested our crates! Everything was ok thankfully!

Scandic/Euro Tour Commences!

2010-11-11T06:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Berlin! We just got in yesterday after spending a wonderful three days in Denmark. Our workshop at the Funen Academy went well and we can't wait to return to see the students' projects. We had an exciting first performance at the Brandts and last night was our first performance in Berlin at MMX. There have been a few minor mishaps, a blown fuse and navigating the cobble stone roads, but nothing that our glue gun and wonderful, kind hosts couldn't solve. On to Tik! Below is a picture of us lecturing and eating lunch at the Academy and navigating the metro of Berlin with our baggage. It was so, so lovely! Performance pics to come!

"That's how I roll!", says the Rat.

2010-10-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

We've been in rehearsal mode for a bit now. The script has been finalized and we're practicing dilligently to nail down our moves. Oh yeah, the Falcons can cut a rug. Here's a sneek peek of the rat finished, complete with roller feet and a snake tail. And our wild dogs are loose, so look out!

a rat, a quilt, wild dogs, the williamsburg bridge, some testers

2010-10-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

We are on our way to finishing up all the making for The Cactus Duet. We encountered a few hurdles, and had to make things over. The first rat became a tester; we tried sawdust, fabric and charcoal to replicate fur. None of those materials were used in the end, but we still like the first rat... so much so that Tara posed with it pretending to feed it some wood shavings, delicious! We are super excited about the quilt. One side is a mountain scene, and the other is an industrial city scene. It's all coming together and we're trying some new things that we are feeling positive about. More to come soon!

Support our IndieGOGO project!

2010-10-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

http://player.vimeo.com/video/14630250?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ff0179
The Cactus Duet Tour from Friendly Falcons on Vimeo.

Composers and Constructors, the Snake and Segovia

2010-09-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend was spent writing songs and stories, and making a base structure for our traveling set. The set comes apart quite easily and can be carried under one arm or fit snugly into a suitcase corner. It took many more hours than expected to build this one- but we suppose that's what happens when function marries form and then takes a honeymoon in Europe with one suitcase. Three new songs were composed and now await words and imagery. More sneak peaks to come...

The Cactus Duet Tour

2010-09-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

In November, we will be undertaking a four-country tour, performing the newest iteration of The Cactus Duet. We will be designing the performance set so that it fits into a suitcase and can be put together on site. On the same trip, we are leading a workshop at Funen Academy of Fine Arts in Odense, Denmark, called Nomad as Art. In the workshop, students will be asked to make a formal or functional artwork that explores the history and ideology of nomadism. We are excited to develop and undertake our own "nomadic artwork" at the same time. Visit back for some in-process photos of the work and the tour dates and venues!

Falcons on the flat, phat

2010-07-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

As we waited in the ferry waiting room full of people, we watched the flat screen announce events for the weekend. All of a sudden, a familiar something came onscreen. Tara exclaimed, "Hey, that's us!" Then we proceeded to wait an additional 10 minutes for the loop to run again so we could take this picture.

Cactus Duet

2010-07-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

We started a new project called The Cactus Duet. Tara's keys were made into an upright piano, a vulture hunts a rat on our tag sale turntable find, cat tails swing to the beat of music, and a cactus keeps time. Scratch, scratch.

Invitation

2010-07-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

The Friendly Falcons & Their Friend the Snake and The Hawk is a Lonely Hunter present "A MOUNTAIN SOARS OVER THE OCEAN," a multi-sensory performance with puppetry, music and sculpture, inspired by traveling and the magnificence of nature.

http://friendlyfalcons.com/

Performance dates & times:
Sunday, July 11th at 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, July 17th at 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Saturday, July 24th at 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Sunday, July 25th at 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Location:
Governor’s Island, New York on the grassy hill across from Building 110
(exit the ferry and veer to the right, walk straight, you will see us)
For ferry schedule and directions visit: http://www.govisland.com/Visit_the_Island/directions.asp

This project is in conjunction with a Swing Space Residency through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council:
http://www.lmcc.net/

Puppet Master Blaster!

2010-07-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

We've been busy at work getting ready for our first performance on Sunday, July 11th. We don't want to give too much away, but here's a couple shots of the puppets and props that we've been making. Most of them are cut with a jigsaw from 1/4 inch plywood and cleaned up with our fresh Dremel. Hope you enjoy the sneak peak!

You’re so vane…

2010-06-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

We made and added a weathervane to the top of the radio tower. It is a big corn on the cob- the corn part is dazzling gold glitter. And yes, the weathervane works! The invitation with performance dates will be posted soon...

The Great Outdoors

2010-06-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Today was the day. We finally put the sculpture outside and gave it some space. We are calling it "A Mountain Soars Over the Ocean." The day started off humid and grey, but as soon as the last screw was fastened the clouds parted and the sun was shining. We were happily surprised to see that our original sketches for the sculpture looked very similar to what turned out, that rarely happens. Jeff was doing a belly crawl below the platform attaching concrete clouds so the thing doesn't fly away in a sudden gale and I was monkeying around on top of the platform most of the day, stringing the flags into a rainbow. We have a few finishing touches left to the sculpture itself and we are piecing together some travellin' songs and puppetry to perform on "The Mountain..." Also, we are collecting various noteworthy and memorable sights to be featured in our binocular tours. Stay tuned for top-secret tidbits that may appear as we prepare for the performances!

Concrete clouds! Whaat???

2010-05-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

We made our foundation for the platform today. It was our first time working with cement and we really like it! At first we were going to try and replicate the form of boulders, but then decided to make clouds. We're happy with the change.

In other Falcon news, we're going to be doing our shadow puppet musical performance, In the Belly of the Bear at Better than Jam on Friday, June 4th at 8pm. Check our website's news section for details.

P.S. Yes, that's a snake head at the end of the cat tail. :)

Expedition, excellent!

2010-05-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

The painting is complete! There's a chance that we'll add a few more cut-outs, but for now that's it. We took some time to explore the island while waiting for paint to dry. We found a playground and a vending machine full of snacks. The lunch truck (the only place to buy food) relocated to an unknown location, so finding the snack machine was sort of a big deal. On the way back to the studio Tara rode back with no hands. Damn, lady's got some skills. We gave the angry cat some extra long whiskers, and gave a couple of pigeons a pair of cool legs. Breezy.

Bright colors, big smiles

2010-05-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Primary colors and zippy personalities appeared, courtesy of some long overdue paint jobs on our wooden cutouts. Some highlights are the humpack whale with a grill, the flock of pigeons and the angry cat. We are still trying to come up with a new name for the overall project. We've decided to leave out the parquet floor and so "Parquet Homé" no longer seems to fit. We can't seem to agree on one, we may need to take suggestions or administer a poll. More on that later...

Prime rib, yum!

2010-04-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Just kidding! Today we primed all the cutouts with our spray gun and mini compressor. The poor thing could barely keep up, but it got the job done. In between waiting for the compressor to fill, we made an impromptu stack sculpture of praire dogs in the window. It was a beautiful day out. Perfect for painting. We're still waiting on news about securing a space outdoors to install our piece, eek! The regular ferry got repaired so we're back to rolling in style on a sweet vessel. Cool man.

Duck, duck, errrrr, Goose, goose, praire dog!

2010-04-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

All day, all rain, still all good. Aw yeah. We're in the final stretch for finishing the cutouts. Today the mountain range, grass, water and some praire dogs were made. We were jigsawin' in our rain jackets. When it got too wet, we made a cat mask from an extra cat head laying around our studio and noticed that a cut off resembled a snake head. How fortuitous! Or should we say, how fortuitoussssssss! There's a chance that we'll be laying down some colors on Thursday if the weather is good. Aw yeah.

Smooch the Goose!

2010-04-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

We worked on the cut-outs of the goose, whale and cat today. There was a slight change in design where now the end of the cat's tail will move and the goose's neck will nod. This thing is starting to feel pretty big in our studio, so we're crossing our fingers that we'll get a spot outside to install it. "Maybe it should be halved?" we thought to ourselves. Next up, more jig sawing and maybe some painting.

P.S. That cat's not angry, it's just got attitude!

Telephone Poles and Studio Cat!

2010-04-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

The telephone poles for the rainbow are now finished. The plan is to run rope through the tops and attach colored flags. We think it's going to be extra festive. We tried to make a cut-out of a cat but it was too small, so it's now become our studio cat. It currently resides by our pile of wood. Next time, cat and goose updates!

Radio Tower and platform

2010-04-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

The skeletal structure for Parquet Homé is almost finished. Next the fun stuff will start to appear... cats with goose heads, magnificent mountain views, rainbow pathways to eternity and whales spouting soda pop!

Build it

2010-04-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Building trusses and the parquet floor.

Rainy days and Mondays

2010-04-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

We can't get over how lucky we are and how exciting it is to take a ferry to our studio. The fog laying over the city this day was pretty amazing.

Parquet

2010-03-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is our first choice as a site for our outdoor sculpture. There is goose poop all over the place... we wonder if it is good fertilizer.

Jeff contemplates our preliminary (concept) drawing for our planned Governor's Island project, Parquet Homé (pronounced: ho-may).

Patio

2010-03-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Our studio has a door leading out to a set of brick steps that we have adopted as our patio. We use it for lunching and brainstorming in the sun.

VIP

2010-03-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Governor’s Island Studio Residency

2010-03-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Starting March 15th, we have a studio on Governor's Island through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. We have been furnished with a gorgeous space in the newly renovated Building 110. The island is only open to us on the weekdays and we have to take a ferry to get there. We have decided to blog throughout the lifespan of the residency since our studio is not accessible to visitors (besides the two Open Studio events, more info to come on that later). We're very excited about the work we have planned and being on the island feels like an adventure, so please stay tuned!